Joseph Senior of Crookes, Sheffield (1880 - 1914)

 Last month I received an email from a reader that stated

"I wonder if you can help. We have found this small metal plaque in our garden. It reads j. Senior. 70 st thomas road crookes. Do you know what it could be?"

and attached a scan of the plaque

I replied that it was an interesting find - my immediate thought was that it was related to "The Bard of Crookes" Joseph Senior, I posted an article to the site quite a few years ago  

http://www.chrishobbs.com/sheffield3/josephsenior.htm

Joseph Senior was well known in the district for his works and poetry. But on reflection I was uneasy about the address - 70 St Thomas Road. The addresses I had from the UK Census all pointed to 30 Crookes and Crookesmoor not St Thomas Road

After some thought I decided to check if there was a grave in either Crookes Churchyard or Crookes Cemetery. There was no entry in the former but a check on the excellent Sheffield Indexers site revealed that a Joseph Senior was buried in Crookes Cemetery along with 3 others

SENIOR, Joseph (Farmer, age 34).

     Died at 70 St Thomas Road; Buried on January 29, 1914 in Unconsecrated ground;

     Grave Number 2639, Section D of Crookes Cemetery, Sheffield.

Armed with this information it was easy to find Joseph in the 1911 UK census, Th transcript is below 

NAME: Joseph Senior

AGE IN 1911: 31

ESTIMATED BIRTH YEAR: 1880

RELATION TO HEAD: Head GENDER: Male

BIRTH PLACE: Crookes CIVIL PARISH: Ecclesall COUNTRY: England

STREET ADDRESS: 70 St Thomas Road Crookes Sheffield

MARITAL STATUS: Married

OCCUPATION: Cow Keeper

REGISTRATION DISTRICT NUMBER: 509

SUB-REGISTRATION DISTRICT: Ecclesall West Central

ED, INSTITUTION, OR VESSEL: 25 PIECE: 27745

HOUSEHOLD MEMBERS:

Name Age

Annie Elizabeth Senior 32

Joseph Senior 31

Maurie Staniforth 19

I cannot be totally sure but on the balance of probabilities I would say it was either a house no. or it could be some form of marker/stamp, Joseph was after all a cowkeeper/ farmer by occupation and so it may have been used in this context

If any reader can add anything about the plaque please let me know